Barry Bannan has admitted that he feared spending Christmas in prison and spoken of his relief that nobody lost their life during his "moment of madness". Bannan was found guilty of drink-driving following a car crash that has cast a shadow over his promising career.

Bannan escaped a custodial sentence when he appeared before magistrates last month but was disqualified from driving for 18 months. The 22-year-old Scotland player was found to have almost twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood after his Range Rover collided with the central reservation on the M1 at 5.30am on 23 October, following a night out in Leeds. Bannan fled the scene but was later arrested and held in police cells before being charged with four offences. As well as drink-driving, he admitted failing to stop after an accident, driving without due care and attention and driving on a provisional licence.

The whole episode has, in Bannan's words, been a "terrifying experience". His mother "went to pieces" when she found out that he had been arrested and Bannan admitted that he "crumbled" when he entered court. His punishment was the aforementioned driving ban and a £4,500 fine, which in the circumstances must have felt like a reprieve. Bannan's real good fortune, however, was that his reckless actions did not cause a more serious accident.

"I was lucky," he said. "I think if there was another car involved or if I did something to myself or my mate [James Collins, a Shrewsbury Town player who is a former Villa trainee] that was in the car as well … you wake up the next day and you are thinking of loads of other things but you feel lucky as well because I might not have been here or could have taken someone else's life."

It is for that reason that Bannan has linked up with West Midlands police to support their Christmas campaign to stop drink-driving. On Tuesday, at Villa's Bodymoor Heath training ground, Bannan sat alongside Inspector Greg Jennings, who is leading the initiative, and listened to some harrowing statistics, including the fact that 250 lives are lost every year because of drink-driving.

Bannan is thankful that he did not add to that number, as well as being grateful to still have his freedom.

"I was putting on a strong front when I was around the club," he said. "But as soon as I got into the court that's when it started to hit me the most. I crumbled. It was so scary in there. They left for 10 minutes and they come back in and tell you what's going to happen, and in that 10 minutes all sorts are going through your head. It's terrifying. Up until I got out of the court case I was thinking the worst. They [his solicitors] couldn't rule anything out, so there was a strong possibility that I could have gone to jail. Obviously if I had to gone to jail, who knows what the club would do. They could easily have sacked me."

Bannan needs no telling that he has let a lot of people down, especially those closest to him. "My dad's a strong character and he was trying to help me but my mum went to pieces, and that's the person I love the most, so it was hard for me to see my mum so down," Bannan said.

Villa suspended Bannan and have disciplined him but they are now trying to give him the support to put a chastening experience behind him and rebuild a career that was starting to flourish before the incident happened. He is receiving counselling every Friday and hopes that his work with West Midlands police is a step on the road to redemption.

"If this helps me stop young people thinking of drink-driving, then it's completely worthwhile," Bannan said. "I could have injured myself, my mate or, even worse, someone else. That's always going to be with me and I will always think that. I am extremely remorseful and I can't say sorry enough."